Rod Carew
Rodney Cline "Rod" Carew (born October 1, ), is a former Major League Baseball infielder for the Minnesota Twins and the former California Angels from to . He threw right-handed and batted left-handed. Early Life Rod Carew was born to a Panamanian mother on a train in the town of Gatún, which, at that time, was in the Panama Canal Zone. The train was racially segregated; white passengers were given the better forward cars, while non-whites, like Carew's mother, were forced to ride in the rearward cars. When she went into labor, a Jewish physician traveling on the train, Dr. Rodney Cline, delivered the baby, who was named Rodney Cline Carew in appreciation. At age 14, the Carews emigrated to the United States. He lived in the Washington Heights section of the borough of Manhattan, New York City. Rod Carew attended George Washington High School, which current Los Angeles Dodgers star left fielder Manny Ramirez attended. He signed an amateur free agent contract with the Minnesota Twins a day after graduating."This Week In Baseball History - Week ending 10/5", Sporting News, October 8, 2007. Accessed June 10, 2008. "In 1958, the Carew family migrated to America and settled in the Washington Heights section of New York City." Three years later, he was called up and became a teammate of first baseman Harmon Killebrew. One of his teammates was a pitcher named Ron Kline. Major League career Rod Carew won the American League's Rookie of the Year award in and was an All-Star in every year but his final one, . In his career, Carew won seven batting titles. In , Carew led the American League in batting, hitting .318 without hitting a single home run. He would finish his career with 92, but the was the only one in which he did not hit a home run. During the season he hit .388, which was, at the time, the highest since Boston's Ted Williams hit .406 in . In , Kansas City Royals third baseman George Brett would flirt with .400, but ultimately finished at .390. Tony Gwynn of the San Diego Padres hit .394 in . To date, that is the closest anyone has come to hitting .400 in 500 or more at bats. For his efforts, Carew won the American League's Most Valuable Player award. In addition, Carew and Ty Cobb are the only players to lead both leagues in hitting in three consecutive seasons. Carew achieved it in , , and . Rod Carew also stole home 17 times in his career.Stealing Home Base Records by Baseball Almanac Originally a second baseman, Carew moved to first base in September to lengthen his career. Frustrated by the Twins' inability to keep young talent as well as racist comments made by team owner Calvin Griffith http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/198108/baseball/6 Carew announced his intention to leave the team in . However, he was instead traded to the then-California Angels for outfielder Ken Landreaux, catcher/first baseman Dave Engle, right-handed pitcher Paul Hartzell, and left-handed pitcher Brad Havens. On August 4, , Carew joined an elite group of ballplayers when he got his 3,000th basehit against Minnesota Twins left-hander Frank Viola at the former Anaheim Stadium. Coincidentally, Chicago White Sox right-hander Tom Seaver won his 300th career game on the same day. The season would be his last. After the season, Rod Carew, a free agent, received no contract offers from other teams. Carew suspected that baseball owners were deliberately colluding to keep him from playing. The suspicion was justified; on January 10, , nearly a decade after his forced retirement, arbitrator Thomas Roberts ruled that the owners had indeed violated the rules of baseball's second collusion agreement, which they had previously agreed to abide by. Rod Carew was awarded damages equivalent to what he would have likely received in : $782,036. http://www.cnn.com/EVENTS/year_in_review/sports/index4.html Rod Carew finished his career with 3,053 hits and a lifetime batting average of .328. Rod Carew was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in , his first year of eligibility. He was the 22nd player so elected. In , he ranked #61 on The Sporting News'' list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, and was nominated as a finalist for Major League Baseball's All-Century Team. Military service During the 1960's, Rod Carew served a 6-year commitment in the United States Marine Corps Reserves as a combat engineer. Confusion over conversion to Judaism Rod Carew has never formally converted to Judaism. However, he married a Jewish woman and his children were raised in the Jewish tradition. A chief source propagating the misconception that Carew converted to Judaism is the 1994 song, The Chanukah Song, written and performed by Jewish entertainer Adam Sandler, in which he lists famous Jews of the 20th century. He names Carew thusly: "...O.J. Simpson... not a Jew! But guess who is: Hall of Famer Rod Carew — he converted". Sandler has reiterated this mistake in later incarnations of the song. Adding to the confusion is an article written in Esquire magazine in . Jewish sportswriter Harry Stein released his "All Time All-Star Argument Starter" article which consisted of five different baseball teams, each based on ethnicity. Rod Carew was erroneously named the second baseman on Stein's All-Jewish team. After Retirement Carew moved to the upscale community of Anaheim Hills, California while playing with the Angels and remained there upon announcing his retirement. Following his retirement, Rod Carew has worked as a hitting coach for the Angels and the Milwaukee Brewers and is credited with helping develop young hitters like Garret Anderson, Jim Edmonds, and Tim Salmon. On January 19, 2004, Panama City's National Stadium was renamed "Rod Carew Stadium". http://www.asamblea.gob.pa/GACETAS/2000/2004/24969_2004.PDF In , Carew was named the second baseman on the Major League Baseball Latino Legends Team. His uniform number 29 has been retired by both the Twins and the Angels. Carew's daughter, Michelle, was diagnosed with leukemia in September, . Her rare Panamanian-Jewish heritage dramatically lowered possibility of finding a matching donor for a bone marrow transplant. In spite of Carew's heartfelt pleas for those of similar ethnic background to come forward, no donor did and one could not be found. Michelle Carew died on April 17, 1996 at the age of 18. A statue of her has been installed in Angel Stadium of Anaheim. In 2010, Mr. Carew formed Rod Carew Baseball (RCB), which is committed to being the premier baseball/softball company dedicated to the art and science of hitting. The Company develops, manufactures, and markets hitting and training tools to improve a player's hitting skills. RCB's flagship product is the GAPHitter - the ultimate hitting aid. RCB's corporate offices are located in Chicago, IL, with satellite offices in Boston and Los Angeles. Chewing tobacco use Carew began using chewing tobacco in and was a regular user up to , when a cancerous growth in his mouth was discovered and removed. The years of use had heavily damaged his teeth and gums, and Carew has spent a reported $100,000 in restorative dental work. http://www.globalink.org/tobacco/trg/Chapter17/Chap17_SmokelessPage2.html Use in baseball has markedly declined. The home teams used to provide players chewing tobacco and smokeless tobacco ("snuff" or "dip"), but have been prohibited from doing it since . http://www.oralcancerfoundation.org/news/story.asp?newsId=1736 See also * List of players from Panama in Major League Baseball * DHL Hometown Heroes * List of major league players with 2,000 hits * List of Major League Baseball players with 400 doubles * List of Major League Baseball players with 100 triples * List of Major League Baseball players with 1000 runs * List of Major League Baseball players with 1000 RBI * 3000 hit club * Hitting for the cycle * List of Major League Baseball batting champions * List of Major League Baseball runs scored champions * List of Major League Baseball triples champions References External links * * * rodcarew29.com Official website * Ten Keys To Good Hitting by Rod Carew Category:Hall of Fame Category:Major league second basemen Category:Major league first basemen Category:American League All-Stars Category:1967 American League All-Stars Category:1968 American League All-Stars Category:1969 American League All-Stars Category:1970 American League All-Stars Category:1971 American League All-Stars Category:1972 American League All-Stars Category:1973 American League All-Stars Category:1974 American League All-Stars Category:1975 American League All-Stars Category:1976 American League All-Stars Category:1977 American League All-Stars Category:1978 American League All-Stars Category:1979 American League All-Stars Category:1980 American League All-Stars Category:1981 American League All-Stars Category:1982 American League All-Stars Category:1983 American League All-Stars Category:1984 American League All-Stars Category:Major League Baseball Rookie of the Year Award winners Category:California Angels players Category:Minnesota Twins players Category:Panamanian baseball players Category:1945 births Category:Living people Category:Baseball players who have hit for the cycle Category:American League batting champions Category:People from Anaheim, California Category:People from New York City Category:Panamanian-Americans Category:Zonians Category:Black Jews Category:People from Washington Heights, New York Category:Players